Network administrators are charged with the task of the design, support and expansion of a new or existing network topology. When problems with the network occur, network administrators must quickly and efficiently diagnose and eliminate the problem in order to reduce network downtime of the end users. Network performance can suffer for a variety of reasons, the most basic of which is an inefficient layout of the network topology. For example, as networks grow it is common for the network administrator to migrate end nodes that talk together to the same collision domain without thought of overall network optimization. As a result, it is easy for some collision domains to become overloaded with traffic while other collision domains in the network are under utilized.
Other reasons for a poor network design include: (1) a network being handed down from administrator to administrator, each administrator adding to the network on a piecemeal basis, without thought to the overall system design, (2) a poor initial base network design, (3) lack of proper equipment, and/or (4) lack of knowledge and training of the network administrator. Poor network design can have devastating effects on the productivity of the system users. Allowing the network to be expanded from a poor base design simply compounds the problem.
Today's network administrators have a plethora of technologies to help collect data illustrating the traffic patterns on the network. One tool used by network administrators to collect data is a LAN analyzer. Technologies including HP EASE and RMON may also be used to collect traffic pattern data. However, although current technologies provide useful information, they do not provide an analysis of the traffic pattern data that illustrate and recommend to the network administrator the best way to reorganize end nodes to achieve increased performance.
Although traffic data collected, for example by the LAN analyzer, is useful the amount of data output is so large, it often requires significant efforts by the network administrator to wade through, decipher and analyze. Because the industry trend is to have fewer network administrators survey more and more complex network topologies, network administrators will often not have an intimate understanding of the network topology. Further, a network administrator is often taking over a network previously supported by another network administrator and does not have the time to do complex network analysis. Current data collection applications provide no suggestion to network administrators as to how and when collision domains in the network topology should be split to optimize network performance. An optimization tool that interprets this data and suggests how the network should be changed to achieve an optimal network topology is needed.